XXIV.— THE SNOWDROP. 
Galanthus nivalis Linne. 
I N spite of their many obvious resemblances in habit of growth, texture, and 
the number of their floral leaves, the Family Amaryllidacea was, until recently, 
separated by most botanists from the Liliace<e. Although possessing a bulb, fleshy, 
glabrous, linear leaves, a spathe, and a flower of fifteen floral leaves in five whorls 
of three each, the Snowdrop and its near allies were set apart from the types that we 
have just been describing by having an inferior ovary. This character is conspicuous 
at a glance, the ovary being seen at once below the flower ; but it is not now 
considered sufficient to separate two distinct Families of plants, identical in almost 
every other characteristic. 
The Family comprises some 700 species, in 75 genera, mostly natives of the 
drier subtropical regions, and having corresponding xerophytic characters, such as 
bulbs and erect succulent or rigid leaves often with a glaucous surface. 
The Family takes its name from the beautiful Belladonna Lily ( Amaryllis bella- 
donna L.) of South Africa; but, besides the three genera represented among British 
plants, the best-known genus is, perhaps, Agave , the so-called “ Century plants ” of 
tropical America, different species of which yield valuable fibres, such as Pita 
grass, Silk grass, and Ixtle or Sisal hemp, and pulque, the favourite fermented 
drink of the Mexicans. 
The genus Galanthus , which is confined apparently to Europe and south-west 
Asia, and only includes about ten known species, was named from its opaquely milk- 
white blossoms (from the Greek ya\a, gala, milk ; av 0 o<;, anthos , a flower), and is 
characterised by its bulb, its radical linear leaves, and its solitary drooping flowers 
with their inner perianth-leaves shorter than the outer ones and notched at their 
apices. 
Our species, G. nivalis L., of which the specific name signifies “ belonging to 
snow,” is, at the best, but a doubtful native of Britain. It has long been a favourite 
in gardens and apparently soon degenerates to the wild form when the soil is no 
longer cultivated ; whilst it is often excessively difficult to say with certainty that 
a particular spot may not have been the site of cultivation at some past period. In 
such localities as the Arniston Woods, Edinburgh, where it covers acres of ground, 
the banks of the Tees about Blackwell and Conniscliffe, and some copses in Glou- 
cestershire and Hereford, it certainly has the appearance of being wild, though it is 
true that bulbous plants may remain in the ground and defy eradication during long 
terms of years. The glens at the northern foot of the Herefordshire Beacon, where 
Withering saw it growing a hundred and sixty years ago, are, it is true, less than a 
mile from Little Malvern Priory ; and, as the flower finds no mention in our earlier 
poets, it has been suggested that it was a monastic introduction of medieval times. 
At the same time, there is nothing in the continental distribution of the species, 
